This year's count was our 77th since 1908. We haven't missed a year since
1952. We were grateful for decent weather on count day, as the day before was
misearble and the day after hit-or-miss. We fanned out in 45 parties to cover
the 14 major territories within the 15 mile diameter circle centered at Pioneer
Square. This year a record number of observers participated, 194.

One measure of a count's success is the raw number of species observed. By that
standard our count total of 124 was above our long term average of 120. An
additional 6 species were seen during countweek, but which eluded us on count
day. The total of individual birds counted, 63,508, was nearly identical to
last year's total. This is 17% above the 10-year average and 41% above the
30-year par.

Of course, the total of individuals is heavily leveraged by counts of a handful
of abundant species, such as:

crows (12,281)

coots (7,481)

starlings (4,468)

robins (3,538)

Rock Pigeons (3,244)

Western Grebes (2,267)

Glaucous-winged Gulls (2,184, of a grand total gull count of 4,532)

Bushtits (1,698)

Black-capped Chickadee (1,571)

American Wigeons (1,552, of a grand total duck count of 9,228)

Last year's top ten was nearly identical, with the
notable exception of the Pine Siskin (#7 last year), which this year set a new
record low count of just 21. Western Grebes moved up from 9th to 6th, an
encouraging sign for this threatened species. These top-ten species account for
63.4% of all individual birds counted.

The crow count is primarily from our best estimate of numbers at two large
winter roosts. Traditionally, the roost on Foster Island has been the largest,
last year tallying nearly 11,000 birds. However, this year the Foster Island
roost seems to be considerably smaller, with just 3,000 counted at dawn.
Meanwhile, the roost at Newport Shores has grown dramatically. Tom Weir
commented that the 6,000 crows they counted leaving that roost could just as
well have been 12,000! They were unable to keep up with the flood of birds
leaving the roost for their daily rounds.

At the other end of the spectrum are 14 species represented on the count by
just one or two individuals: Green Heron, Greater White-fronted Goose,
Ring-necked Pheasant, California Quail, Virginia Rail, Rock Sandpiper, Cassin's
Auklet, Barn and Barred Owls, Barn Swallow, Savannah, Swamp, and White-throated
Sparrows, and a Brown-headed Cowbird. Some of these are regular winter
residents with small and/or elusive local populations, such as the heron,
goose, rail, owls, and sparrows. A few are irregular visitors recorded just a
few times on the Seattle count, such as the Cassin's Auklet, likely driven
inshore by the preceding week of storms, which also produced countweek
sightings of Short-tailed Shearwater and Red Phalarope. Note that the addition
of just a handful of such stragglers could sharply elevate the species count.
The pheasant (Montlake Fill) and quail (Discovery Park) seem on the verge of
vanishing altogether as their habitat is progressively reduced (and in the
absence of continuing releases). The Barn Swallow (at Magnuson Park), on the
other hand, is perhaps a harbinger of global warming, as Barn Swallows have
become rare but regular in winter in western Washington since just a few years
ago.

This year's count was notable in that 24 species set new all-time highs. This
is no doubt in part due to the record number of observers and the decent
weather. Most of the record-setters were woodland species highly dependent on
observer density. However, some totals may reflect real population trends. Of
particular note are: